In March 2025, the Hungarian Parliament enacted legislation expanding the use of facial recognition technologies in minor offence procedures. The law is a part of broader efforts aimed at enhancing child protection measures, but has sparked considerable legal debate due to potential conflicts with European data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the forthcoming EU Artificial Intelligence Act.

On 7 April 2025, Mr. János Lázár, Hungary’s Minister of Construction and Transport announced via social media his intention to introduce a major legislative initiative designed to overhaul the oversight of public investments.

In March 2025, the Hungarian Government decided to significantly strengthen Hungarian citizens’ right to use cash. In this context, the Fundamental Law has been amended, so that the possibility to pay in cash will become a fundamental right. According to the explanatory memorandum, this is necessary to avoid the economy becoming completely vulnerable to electronic financial systems.

The Hungarian Ministry of National Economy published a bill to amend the ESG Act on 21 March 2025, simultaneously launching a public debate on the proposal. According to the official justification, the amendment aims to optimise the ESG reporting framework for sustainability aspects of Hungarian enterprises, to further strengthen the competitiveness of enterprises and to reduce the reporting and administrative burden on enterprises.

On 11 March 2025, the Ministry of National Economy and the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary published an opinion regarding the taxation of assigning dividend claims into a trust structure.

The Hungarian Government is committed to reducing environmentally harmful activities and protecting the environment. However, fines imposed by environmental authorities for violations related to environmental permits, noise pollution and air quality have remained unchanged for 15–20 years. The Government expects all investments to meet the highest environmental standards, and under the “polluter pays” principle, non-compliant companies will face penalties.

Over the past years, the number of casual and seasonal employees in Hungary has reached nearly 320 thousand, however, according to the Government, many employees are only registered as such because of the tax benefits associated with the forms of simplified employment.

If a bank fails to comply with its information obligations in consumer credit agreements, it may be deprived of its right to charge interest and other fees. This applies even if the severity of the violation and its consequences for the consumer varies from case to case.

According to the Hungarian government’s announcement, from October 2025, mothers with three children could also be exempt from personal income tax for the rest of their lives (this is already possible for mothers with at least four children since 2020), and the exemption would be phased in for mothers with two children.

On 15 January 2025, the new electronic land register was launched in Hungary, although the transitional rules currently still allow for the use of the previous paper-based procedure. At the end of February 2025, the Hungarian Government proposed amendments to the recently implemented electronic land registry system (E-ING) to enhance legal uniformity and bolster the security of real estate transactions.

In its recent decision of 19 February 2025, the Supreme Court of Hungary (‘Curia’) overturned the second-degree verdict that held fraud victims solely liable and ruled that financial institutions cannot automatically reject compensation claims. This landmark decision might open the doors for customers to claims against their banks in similar cases.

A new proposal could eliminate the requirement for remote control regulation in solar power plants with a capacity of less than 5 megawatts (MW).

Following the year-end legislative news, several changes affecting so-called "green taxes" came into force at the beginning of 2025. The most significant of these is the effective abolition of the dual obligations of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the Environmental Product Charges (EPC), except for plastic carrier bags, and the introduction of the EPR penalty rates that have been expected since the introduction of the EPR. At the same time, there are also many changes to the EPR rules.

From 1 January 2025, third-country nationals will no longer be entitled to claim certain personal income tax (PIT) benefits. Third countries are non-EEA countries and countries that have not concluded a bilateral social security agreement with Hungary.

The global minimum tax initiative aims to ensure that large multinational corporations operating across multiple jurisdictions pay a corporate tax rate of at least 15%.

Last summer, the deposit return system (DRS) was introduced, under which 0.1-3 litres of drink products with a mandatory redemption fee can be bought in shops at a price increased by the redemption fee.

The Hungarian Government has made a significant amendment just weeks into 2025 by increasing the VAT exemption threshold for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Despite the autumn tax package for 2025 remaining silent on this matter, the new limit has been set at HUF 18 million, up from the longstanding HUF 12 million. This increase applies retroactively from 1 January 2025. Taxpayers have until the end of February to opt in for the exemption.

Hungary introduced new regulations for employing guest workers from third countries. These updates specify eligible countries and permit requirements to align with Hungary’s labour market needs and compliance standards.